Re: [RFC PATCH 0/2] Fix scissors bug during merge conflict

Denton Liu <liu.denton@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> With this fix, the message becomes the following:
>
> Merge branch 'master' into new
>
> # ------------------------ >8 ------------------------
> # Do not modify or remove the line above.
> # Everything below it will be ignored.
> #
> # Conflicts:
> # a
I have a mixed feeling about this change and I certainly would not
call it a "fix".
The reason why we give the list of conflicted paths that is
commented out is to remind the user of them in order to help them
describe what area of the codebase had overlapping changes, why, and
how the overlap was resolved, which is relevant information when
somebody else later needs to dig into the history to understand how
the code came into today's shape and why. For that reason, if a
careless user left conflicts list behind without describing these
details about the merge, it might be better to have the unexplained
list in the merge than nothing.
In theory, the above argument applies the same way for the paths to
be committed, but the list is fairly trivial to recreate with "git
diff $it^!", unlike "which paths had conflict", which can only be
found out by recreating the auto-merge. So in practice, the paths
that had conflicts is more worth showing than the paths that were
modified.
So, I dunno. If we value the "more expensive list to reproduce",
the fix might be not to place it (and possibly the comments and
everything under the scissors line) behind a "# " comment char on
the line, without moving its position.
.